VK3/VW-002 (Red Man Bluff)

Looking back towards Halls Gap over Lake Bellfield from operating position on Red man Bluff.

Access is from Mt William Road. The walk in is a short challenging 2Km. Challenging as the scrub is fierce and thick. The goal is to get onto a ridge line so as to avoid the thick gullies and to get up to the cliff line and follow the line across. Put your gloves on and pack the pack tight to get through the thick growth.

There is a ’track’ across the top. It is a section of the annual Serra Terror. Clear enough to follow and marked with yellow tape. Below is a section of the route from their documentation

Took 80m antenna and ran 40 odd meters of wire down the rock outcrops with the squid pole in the middle. Worked a treat with 40 and 80m contacts and a single 2M FM

VK3/VS-001 (Mt William)

The walk up Mt William is a 1.5Km on sealed road but steep. Left to end of day as easy and clear.

Mt William has a large flat activation zone with several comms towers. Given the easy access you could bring up elaborate antenna and supports. I go to the left between the towers so as to avoid the traffic. Once on site I pulled out the antenna to discover it had come off the winder and had transferred itself into a rats nest. Spent good 10 minutes unravelling to finally decide to cut the end off and use what I had. The KX3 tuned the 30 odd meters that was left and I secured the summit on 40 and 80m.

Looking towards Ararat from Mt William.

Patches of snow on Mt William. The snow was from the weather earlier in the week but shows how cold the summit was. Also highlights micro climates as these pockets were cold.

Overall a straight forward operation. Home on dark with 12 points for my efforts.